Biking – Valerie's Voice

A Library and Cat Yoga

My friend and I spent a day in Cannon Falls, a small-town east of Northfield with about 4,400 people. The town has a trailhead for the Cannon Valley Bike Trail so we are very familiar with the town. We have been there often. After bike rides, one tends to look around the surrounding towns, and occasionally go out to eat, or out for ice cream!

On this winter day we were just exploring the town itself. There were two shops in particular we wanted to check out, but they happened to be closed on Monday and Tuesday. However, we found two other fun stores we had not been to, and there are two great antique shops to browse around in.

A pretty wreath hanging on the door to the library, to invite you in.

While walking up and down main street I mentioned to my friend that the library was really nice. I had been in it a few times. (I like libraries and tend to check them out.) It’s a wonderful library for a small town. This library is unique in that it has a fireplace which makes a cozy place to sit and read a book, or just sit a spell. We decided to go in and take a look.

The lovely sitting area by the fireplace in the Cannon Falls Library.

After enjoying the fire, we looked around. There is creative children’s area, and every time I’ve been in, there is a simple kid’s craft, in a baggie, to take home.

In the community room I noticed a guy rearranging chairs. On the big screen a gal sat poised on a chair with the title Chair Yoga. So I asked about it and he told me chair yoga was a weekly occurrence, about 30 minutes in length, and it was about to start. I looked at my friend and we smiled and nodded in agreement that we’d join in on this chair yoga session.

With the two of us, we made a group of six. We practiced with some friendly women. They explained the not-so-good quality video was taken of the regular instructor who was out on medical leave, so they just taped her leading the practice. You really couldn’t hear her, but we could follow along by watching her.

I didn’t get a photo from the video of the cat, but I dug up this one of our playful, family pet kitty from years ago.

And it was comical. The instructor’s cat was very much a part of the scene. He was very active and fun to watch. He’d jump up on her, crawl over her shoulder and down her leg, jump back down, pounce around the room, and jump back up on her, and then back down to the floor, batting his paws at her feet. This went on the entire time, and she continued to do yoga. It added a special, humorous dimension to this chair yoga practice.

Thirty minutes later we said good-bye to our new friends, who gather at the library three times a week for some form of exercise…a great idea for a library we thought.

We headed off to lunch, smiling all the way…what a serendipitous moment at the Cannon Falls Library…we’re so glad we went with “the flow.”

Second Summer

The term Second Summer is now being used instead of Indian Summer, which was the terminology I grew up with. Although the name Second Summer is preferred by the Native Americans, it doesn’t change the fact that is a great event to experience during autumn in Minnesota. According to Wikipedia, “A(n) ~~Indian Summer~~ Second Summer is a period of unseasonably warm, dry weather that sometimes occurs in autumn in temperate regions of the northern hemisphere.”

Sakatah Singing Hills Trail, November 12, 2023.

We had a beautiful, Second Summer Day over the weekend and decided to take our bikes out (which we thought were tucked away for the season) for another ride.

We went to Sakatah Singing Hills State Trail. It was delightful. We added an extra layer and felt warm enough as we cruised down the paved trail. It felt good to be out in the fresh air, soaking up some illusive sunshine. We’ve had many cloudy days lately.

Sakatah Lake. The 39 mile trail goes along several lakes.

The leaves are all off the trees and the scenery on the trail looks a bit different than during the summertime. You can see more of the lakes as you ride by, and you can see into the woods and the forest floor. There were several other folks on the trail this day.

After our ride we took a quick detour to an out-of-the-way boutique filled with Christmas crafts and decorations. It’s called, A Touch of Class. We walked around the stable-turned-boutique and got some fresh ideas for the upcoming Christmas season. I always wait until after Thanksgiving to start decorating for Christmas, but it was a fun place to peruse, and get in the mood to decorate for the holidays.

4:56pm, November 12, 2023 (sunset was 4:48 pm)

As we drove home, the sky had a pretty glow as it was near sunset, which of course is very early these days, in Minnesota.

There is supposed to be a couple more Second Summer days in the coming week…maybe we’ll get out on the bike one more time?

Tour de SAVE

On Saturday Gary and I rode a 25-mile bike loop for Tour de SAVE. SAVE is an acronym for Suicide Awareness Voices of Education. The ride was a fundraiser for this organization.

SAVE: Suicide Awareness Voices of Education

After you registered, you could fill out a pennant to wear, naming a person or persons you were riding in memory of. Both Gary and I have personal connections to people who have taken their own lives, but there were a lot of folks riding for the sake of bringing awareness to suicide.

Gary has ridden this event in previous years. This is a jersey from a different year.

SAVE hosts several types of events, including 5K walk/runs, throughout Minnesota and the US. Click here for a link to their website.

Information signs were posted at the registration area.

We had a beautiful morning to ride. The hot and humid weather moved out and cool, dry air moved in. The rural route took us on backroads, past fields and farms. The blue sky boasted white wispy clouds.

Fields of corn and soy beans, and beautiful blue skies and clouds.

After the ride we met friends for lunch, and then walked to Bridge Square in Northfield to listen to some good band music, put on by the Vintage Band Festival, an annual outdoor music event in Northfield.

Minnesota Pipes and Drums, a musical ensemble consisting of bagpipers and drummers, marching up to the bandshell for their allotted time to play for the crowd.

And, of course, we had a dish of ice cream to wrap up a delightful, summer day.

A great place for ice cream in Northfield.

We were grateful for these wonderful organized events; yet we continue to mourn the loss of loved ones lost to suicide.

The last leg of the 25-mile ride was on the Dundas Trail.

Lake Superior Venture

We just returned from an amazing time on the north shore of Lake Superior. As I’ve written before, it is one of my all-time favorite places to be. When we arrive at the cabin we rent, I sigh a happy sigh when I walk through the door and see the lake through the floor to ceiling windows. It is a marvelous and breathtaking sight that I never grow tired of. I literally feel a calm come over me. I miss it when I’m not there.

During our time at the cabin, we did what we normally do…we enjoy God’s bountiful creation. We bike and hike, drink our morning coffee on the deck, watch the sunrise, have a bon fire on the rocks, relax, read good books, eat delicious food overlooking the lake, and just sit and look at the lake.

I had good intentions of cleaning up my computer files, or deleting photos off my phone, do a little writing, but none of that happened. The lake is alluring and mesmerizing, and we can just sit and do nothing but enjoy the vista for hours…and so we do, and we do not worry about getting anything accomplished. I believe we are being rejuvenated from the inside out.

We traditionally go up to the north shore in September but this year we had reservations in July. The weather was cooler than normal for July, the sunrise is earlier in July…5:20ish…and different kinds of flowers are blooming in July…like beautiful lupines, perky daisies and bright yellow bird’s-foot trefoil.

A photo exposition follows:

A view outside the cabin. I was pleased to see lupines on the property. We started seeing lupine along Scenic Drive as we were driving up. Lupines are not in bloom in September, when we are usually at the cabin.

One of our hikes…overlooking Oberg Lake in summer, 2023.

This is same overlook of Oberg Lake in autumn, 2019.

Streets lined with gold…Highway 61, back roads and bike trails were lined with bird’s-foot trefoill. It was impressive.

This is a bridge on the new section of the Gitchi-Gami bike trail, which we rode on from Cutface Wayside Park into Grand Marais.

Temperance River…a hike we always enjoy, along the gorges of this wild river.

We enjoy a bon fire on the rocks outside the cabin.

Clear water reveals the rocks underneath the waters of Lake Superior.

Our hike to Caribou Falls…down 156 steps to see this beautiful waterfalls, then back up 156 steps! It’s worth it. It’s gorgeous.

Our son Tim took a photo of lupines and a single daisy years ago…it was fun to recapture a similar posturing.

Lake Superior…some days it’s calm, other days it’s not…somedays it’s gray, other times it’s blue, sometimes it’s somber…sometimes it’s glistening… with everything in-between. And, sometimes it all happens in a day. (I told Gary these are the kind of glistening diamonds I like.)

I’m so grateful for our time on the shore of Lake Superior.

Benefits of Biking

This morning, after we walked the kids to their school bus stop, Gary and I went for a bike ride. We are able to use our son and his wife’s bikes. We were enjoying our ride around the neighborhood, then stopped to take a picture.

An older gentleman, who was walking his dog, stopped to chat with us. He had moved to the area, from New York, several years ago. We enjoyed our nice visit with him as he was sharing some of his wisdom! When we departed, he said a blessing over us. What a great way to start our day.

An Autumn Ride

These photos were taken a couple weeks ago, while riding on the Sakatah Singing Hills State trail. It was a cool, fall evening, and surprisingly we had the trail to ourselves.

The trail was canopied with trees that had not dropped all of their colorful leaves, and yet… the asphalt was covered with crispy, autumn leaves, and it was beautiful.

Gary and I rode along this portion of the enchanting path, with the sound of “crunch” underneath us. It was a fun ride!

Bees on the Trail

These past few days have been glorious. Bright sunshine and low humidity and comfortable temperatures. Great days for bike rides.

The new mile markers on the Sakatah Singing Hills State Trail.

We were bicycling on the Sakatah Singing Hills State Trail on one of these fine weather days. The trail is in good condition. We rode out several miles, stopped for lunch and then turned around and rode back. It’s a delightful, easy ride.

There are about 70 species of annual and perennial flowering plants in the daisy family Asteraceae commonly known as *sunflowers*.

Once again, this time of year, we were surrounded by yellow daisy-type flowers and goldenrod and yellow cone flowers. It is pretty, especially with blue skies.

This field of yellow flowers were full of bees. I couldn’t capture them on camera, but there were hundreds of them.

We stopped for a water break and noticed one field of flowers bursting with busy bees. It seemed as though there was a little bee on every flower, collecting nectar and pollen. It was a good sight to see.

I appreciate these colorful, autumn bike rides, especially during the week when there are few riders on the trail. We saw more bees than people!

Dundas Trail

Yesterday I took a morning bicycle ride on the Dundas Trail. Even though it was cloudy, it seemed like the sun was shining…

because bright sun flowers were blooming profusely on both sides of the trail.

Golden rod was already blooming yellow in a few places too, adding to the vibrant yellow color all around.

Golden Rod, a sure sign that fall is coming.

To top it off, three yellow (gold) finches flew across the trail in front of me. I didn’t capture any photos, but they are always a delight to see, and added much cheer to the already lovely, yellow scenery.

I don’t know the name of this variety of sunflower.

Also, I’m grateful for the garden club who tends to the flowers in these bicycle sculpture baskets that are on the Dundas Trail.

Getting Lost and Finding Waldo

We started our annual bike trip by getting lost. While finding the house we rented through AirB&B, we had transposed the numbers into the GPS…whoops. Eventually, we found the house.

Once settled in, we ate lunch and then took off for a bike ride. It was a beautiful day. We rode on the South Riverside Trail. It went along the Cedar River into Cedar Falls where there happened to be an ice cream shop. Perfect. We enjoyed some tasty ice cream and met a local man who had also biked to the shop for ice cream. We visited together while we ate.

We said good-bye without getting his name, and started back the way we came…but somehow missed a turn and we lost our way back to the rented house. With some backtracking we finally found a different trail back.

The next morning it was rainy so we went to the John Deere Tractor Museum and then went into a couple shops on main street in Cedar Falls, where the guys ran into the same man again. They stopped and chatted. Once again, we did not get his name, so as a group we decided to call him Waldo.

That afternoon the weather cleared; it was sunny and nice outside. We hopped on our bikes and rode out in a different direction, towards Waterloo. According to the map, there was a designated trail around the town…but we didn’t find it. It started out well marked, but soon we couldn’t find the trail. We ended up using our GPS system to get back to the house. It took about 1 1/2 hours to go four miles.

The Cedar River, our house on the right, seen through the trees.

Once back to the house, we decided to ride the same trail as the day before. We followed it and found ourselves back at the ice cream shop. Hooray!

And…there was Waldo! It was quite comical. We visited and ate our ice cream with him (but still didn’t get his name). He retired from John Deere Engineering.

Fortunately, we paid attention to our turns this time, so finding our way back to the house was no problem. We did not get lost.

Sitting on the deck, watching the river flow.

The house we rented was lovely… lots of windows and a large deck overlooking the Cedar River. It was nice sitting there, watching the river flow, after being lost three times…and finding Waldo three times.

Twenty-six geese, all in a row, swimming up river, against the current.

John Deere Tractor Museum

We were staying near Waterloo Iowa for a few days this week, on a bike trip with friends.We’ve never been to Waterloo. While we enjoyed Cedar Falls (a neighboring town) better, Waterloo boasted a John Deere Tractor Museum.

Because it was raining, we decided to visit this tractor museum, since we couldn’t ride our bicycles. The museum was well done. It was sizeable. And it was free!

John Deere Waterloo Boy Model “N” Tractor, 1920 in the lobby of the museum.

I find these early steel wheels very interesting.

My husband grew up on a dairy farm in Pennsylvania. His family never owned a John Deere tractor. They had Farmall and International Harvesters. There seems to be a lot of rivalry, and friendly banter, between tractor owners…but Gary found this museum – focusing on these green tractors – very interesting. As did we all.

Gary reminiscing using a slide rule and drafting board work stations in the “good old days” when he did engineering work.

As per usual, interesting stories were told on story boards throughout the museum.

Tractors have come a long way…from the walking plow to the modern, gigantic tractors that have several steps to get up into the cab…

I don’t remember the model of this huge tractor.

…and, that cab has air conditioning, cushioned seats, wrap-around windows and a state-of-the-art computer system. I know we’ve all seen these big machines in the fields. At night they look like space aliens out there.

The steps up into the cab of this tractor.

John Deere also manufactures the riding lawn mowers that are popular, and they used to make bicycles. In fact, a guy in our group used to own a John Deere bicycle…he was lamenting the fact that he got rid of it.

The museum was informative, and we all enjoyed it. It is definitely worth a visit…we would go to visit it again, given the chance.

When we were through the museum, the rain had stopped, the sun came out, and we were able to get back to biking.